Posts Tagged ‘Born Ready’

The latest patch for space-combat blaster Strike Suit Zero looks like a cracker, with a much-demanded in-cockpit view (haha, cockpit is a funny word) which – like the game’s other views – should apparently work well with a three-monitor setup. So that’s fancy. In more practical news: the checkpoint system has been overhauled, the targeting systems has been reworked, and there are new difficulty levels. Strike Suit Zero Point Three, more like.

What would you do if some malevolent genie offered you the choice between either a) a rip-roaring, physics-defying spaceship, or b) a star-destroying giant robot? I would cry. Born Ready, though, presumably encountered that exact situation and decided to create an alternate reality in which they got both. In Strike Suit Zero, you play as a ship that transforms into a giant robot. Take that, evil genie. But is it the dream come true it sounds like it should be? And can it carry an entire arcade space shooter on its cannon-coated shoulders? Here’s wot I think.

Former Edge staffer and protein bar-lover David Valjalo marks his first appearance in our corner of the internet by chatting to Born Ready Games’ leader designer Chris Redden about successfully Kickstartered mech/space combat game Strike Suit Zero. Discussed: the resurrection of a genre, the issues around meeting public promises, changes to the original plan, the rich UK developer Kickstarter backlash and if the wild success of Star Citizen suggests a space combat revival.

Space-bot shooter Strike Suit Zero will be ready for release on January 24th after a stirring Kickstarter campaign ended with $174,804 in the kitty. I’ve never understood why people keep their money in cats, although I’d gladly secure my lifesavings in the tiny keg around a St Bernard’s neck. They’d fit too, seeing as I currently keep the entire sum in my trouser pocket, and a dog wouldn’t scarper with the stash as soon as my back was turned. The funding has also ensured the completion of the XedMod, “a lightweight and unified version of Xed, the development toolset used to create the game”, which will be shared with the community. An old but spacey trailer follows.

It seems I’m going to have to live until 2299 to get to be a Transformer. Right now I’m limited to shouting “KEE KOO KAA KER CHAAA!” and waving my arms around, and while it looks bloody amazing, it’s not quite the same. That’s when Strike Suit Zero says we’ll have colonised space, but also gone and made the silly mistake of having a war. And now it’s up to me, apparently, to save Earth. Again?!

In recent years, space shooters and mechs – once majestic and dominant creatures, loping across the PC landscape with tear-jerking grace – have become all but extinct. They live on the fringes now, only daring to sip from the old watering hole when military FPSes and MMOs are safely out of sight. But now, along comes Strike Suit Zero. It combines all of your favorite things about space (an infinite void that can suck the lungs out of your very chest, pretty stars!) and all of the best bits of mechs (everything) to form a transforming metal titan that seems to be coming along quite nicely.